Hokey Pokey Ice Cream: Pale, Creamy Ice Cream and Crisp Amber Toffee
Keep the contrast between smooth, cold ice cream and small, crisp pieces of honeycomb toffee. Make the toffee first, crush it fine, and add it only after the ice cream has been churned.
Pale ice cream, with small amber fragments of airy toffee scattered through it: that is the picture of hokey pokey ice cream. In New Zealand, "hokey pokey" is the name of the honeycomb candy itself, a slab of sugar and golden syrup puffed up with baking soda, and also the name of the ice cream flavor made by mixing broken pieces of that candy into ice cream. The Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand describes hokey pokey as vanilla ice cream with chunks of honeycomb toffee, and as a flavor with a popularity distinctive to New Zealand.
This article is about the ice cream. It is built from two sources rather than a single original recipe: the hokey pokey is made following the Chelsea Sugar hokey pokey recipe, and the ice cream follows the hokey pokey ice cream recipe in the Cuisinart ICE-FD10XA recipe booklet, written for that machine's dedicated 240 ml cup. Neither recipe's amounts have been changed or scaled.
The typical hokey pokey flavor is vanilla ice cream with honeycomb toffee. The Cuisinart base used here contains no vanilla or other flavoring, so this is a milk-based arrangement for a specific appliance, not a vanilla recipe. This combined recipe has not been kitchen-tested, so there are no tasting notes, and the finished volume and number of servings have not been measured.
For more dishes from the same country, see the New Zealand page.
Ingredients: Two Parts, Ice Cream Base and Hokey Pokey
The ice cream amounts are for one Cuisinart ICE-FD10XA dedicated 240 ml cup. 240 ml is the capacity of the cup, not the amount of finished ice cream. The toffee amounts are the full Chelsea recipe; only 1 Tbsp of crushed toffee goes into the ice cream.
The source recipes do not state the size of their tablespoon and teaspoon. This recipe defines 1 Tbsp as 15 ml and 1 tsp as 5 ml; spoon sizes are not necessarily the same everywhere. Measure the sugar and golden syrup by spoon as written, rather than converting them to grams.
Equipment
- A 20 × 20 cm shallow tin
- A heavy saucepan deep enough for the toffee to foam up well
- A heatproof spatula or spoon for stirring the syrup and the baking soda
- A heatproof surface or trivet to set the saucepan on off the heat
- A bowl and whisk for the ice cream base
- Cuisinart ICE-FD10XA ice cream maker with its dedicated 240 ml dessert cup and lid
- A freezer that holds -18°C or colder, with a level shelf
Choosing the Dairy, Sugar and Golden Syrup
Thickened cream is a high-fat cream sold in Australia and New Zealand. If you can't find it, a fresh cream of 35% fat or more is a likely candidate, but fat content and thickeners differ between products, so it is not the same ingredient, and this swap has not been tested.
Caster sugar is a fine-grained white sugar. Granulated sugar can be used in its place for the ice cream base.
Golden syrup is worth tracking down rather than substituting. It shapes the toffee's flavor, and other syrups differ in flavor and sugar makeup, so no stand-in is offered here. Look for it at import grocers or online.
Hokey pokey contains no honey. "Honeycomb" describes the porous texture created by the baking soda, not an ingredient. Don't add honey, vanilla essence, butter to the toffee mixture, or a chocolate coating; none of them belong to this recipe.
The sugar syrup gets very hot, and it foams up suddenly and strongly when the baking soda goes in. Keep your face and hands away from the pan, and take care when holding the saucepan and pouring. Use commercial pasteurized milk and cream and keep them chilled as their labels direct. Freezing is not a way to make dairy safe.
Method: Toffee First, Then the Base, the Freeze and the Churn
Make the hokey pokey first so it has time to cool and set. The ice cream base needs at least 24 hours in the freezer before churning, so plan ahead.
Fixing Common Problems
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The foam rises fast and nearly reaches the rim | The toffee foams up strongly once the soda goes in | Use a deep, heavy saucepan from the start. Take it off the heat before adding the soda, and keep your face and hands back |
| The toffee tastes burnt or bitter | The syrup scorched while boiling | Melt the sugar over medium-low heat, and boil gently for only 2 minutes. Don't push the heat to hurry it |
| The foam sinks before it reaches the tin | Too slow between adding the soda and pouring | Have the greased tin beside the stove, stir the soda in quickly and pour immediately |
| The toffee won't break cleanly | It hasn't cooled completely | Leave it until it has fully cooled and set before breaking |
| Large lumps in the ice cream | Pieces bigger than 0.5 cm | Crush the mix-in portion to 0.5 cm or smaller before adding it |
| The toffee pieces turn soft or sticky | The toffee has absorbed moisture | Add the toffee only at the end with Mix-in, and eat the ice cream soon after |
| Base overflowing or not processing as expected | Filled above the MAX line, or not frozen long or level enough | Stay below MAX, freeze level at -18°C or colder for at least 24 hours, and follow the instruction booklet |
Other Ice Cream Makers and Variations
If you use a different ice cream maker, the steps above don't transfer directly, because the freezing and churning are written for the ICE-FD10XA. One option is to make your machine manufacturer's basic vanilla recipe and add crushed hokey pokey at the end, as an adjustment for that machine. The amounts and timings in this article do not apply to it.
If you want a vanilla version, treat it as a separate recipe. This base contains no flavoring, and adding vanilla would mean designing a new mix rather than tweaking this one.
Without an ice cream maker, this recipe has no method to offer. Freezing the base in an ordinary container and stirring it repeatedly is not an equivalent of this recipe, and is not presented here as one.
Background: A New Zealand Flavor with an Uncertain Origin
Te Ara describes hokey pokey as vanilla ice cream with honeycomb toffee chunks, and presents it as a flavor with a popularity particular to New Zealand. The tourism board's New Zealand's favourite foods feature also lists hokey pokey among the foods associated with the country. The candy is similar to the honeycomb toffee common in Australia and elsewhere, but in New Zealand the name hokey pokey covers both the candy and the ice cream flavor.
The history is less settled. According to the New Zealand ice cream industry history from NZICA, a Dunedin confectioner, William Hatton, applied for a patent on hokey pokey confectionery in 1896, and a recollection says that in 1953 Newjoy put broken pieces of hokey pokey into ice cream. The same history also notes several competing stories about who came up with it, and that the origin remains uncertain. The 1896 patent concerns the candy, not the ice cream, so neither date is a confirmed birth year for hokey pokey ice cream.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is golden syrup?
It is the syrup that goes into the toffee with the sugar, and it shapes the hokey pokey's flavor. Other syrups differ in flavor and sugar makeup, so this recipe doesn't offer a substitute; look for golden syrup at import grocers or online.
Does hokey pokey contain honey?
No. "Honeycomb" refers to the porous texture that the baking soda creates. The toffee is only sugar, golden syrup and baking soda.
Can I make this without an ice cream maker?
Not with this recipe. The base, freezing and churning are written for the Cuisinart ICE-FD10XA and its dedicated cup. If you have another machine, you can follow its manufacturer's base recipe and add crushed hokey pokey at the end as an adjustment for that machine.
Does one cup make 240 ml of ice cream?
No. 240 ml is the capacity of the dedicated cup, and the base must stay below the MAX line. The finished volume and number of servings have not been measured.
What do I do with the leftover toffee?
The full toffee recipe makes much more than the 1 Tbsp the ice cream uses. Chelsea lists the recipe as about 20 servings, but that depends on how large the pieces are, and the exact amount left over has not been measured. Because the toffee absorbs moisture and its texture changes, this recipe does not give a storage period for it.
Sources
- Chelsea Sugar, "Hokey Pokey Recipe." The toffee amounts (5 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp golden syrup, 1 tsp baking soda), melting the sugar and syrup, boiling gently for two minutes, adding the soda quickly off the heat, pouring immediately and cooling before breaking, and the cautions about hot syrup and sudden foaming. https://www.chelsea.co.nz/recipes/browse-recipes/hokey-pokey?category=School+Holidays
- Cuisinart Australia, "ICE-FD10XA Recipe Booklet," Hokey Pokey Ice Cream. The single-cup base (100 ml full cream milk, 100 ml thickened cream, 30 g caster sugar), freezing level at -18°C or colder for at least 24 hours, churning, and adding 1 Tbsp crushed honeycomb with the Mix-in function; the MAX fill line and mix-in pieces of 0.5 cm or smaller. https://cuisinart.com.au/sites/cuisinart/media/Products/ICE-FD10XA/ICE-FD10XA-Recipe-booklet.pdf
- Cuisinart Australia, "Freeze Wand Ice Cream Maker ICE-FD10XA Instruction & Recipe Booklet." The machine's parts, the three 240 mL dessert cups with a MAX fill mark, and how the cup locks into the mixing assembly with the power handle engaging from above. https://cuisinart.com.au/sites/cuisinart/media/Products/ICE-FD10XA/ICEFD10XA_IB.pdf
- Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand, "Ice cream and ice blocks." Hokey pokey as vanilla ice cream with honeycomb toffee chunks, and its distinctive popularity in New Zealand. https://teara.govt.nz/en/food-and-beverage-manufacturing/page-3
- NZICA, "History of Ice Cream in New Zealand." The 1896 Dunedin patent application for hokey pokey confectionery, the account of Newjoy adding broken hokey pokey to ice cream in 1953, and the competing origin stories and uncertainty. https://historyicecreamnz.co.nz/1951-1960.htm
- 100% Pure New Zealand, "New Zealand's favourite foods." Cultural context for hokey pokey among foods associated with New Zealand. https://www.newzealand.com/sg/feature/favourite-new-zealand-foods/
